Conscience

The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. ~Omar Bradley

Substance Abuse

You know things must be difficult when you are not a drinker, yet you polish off 5 vodka tonics and still have to stop for a 40 oz. As if you could completely drink away your woes - everyone knows one cannot.

There is a hole, yet it cannot be filled. The one ingredient that will fix the hole is unavailable, so you just have to learn to live with the hole, be wary of it, tread carefully around it, always respect its presence. Its intimidating, this hole. Everytime you go out you are aware of this hole. Normal daily tasks are completed around this hole. This hole is a big hole, and it takes only one thing to fill it, and you ain't got it.

Emotions are attached to this hole. There is a history with it. It goes down and back deeper than anyone else could understand. It's rich with memory and cannot go unnoticed.

The alcohol doesn't drown it. The pot doesn't fade it. The pills don't conquer. The only that the hole can be filled with is love.

Christmas

So yeah, Christmas is here. Everyone jump up and down. Or do whatever you do.

Its just another cold day. Facts show Jesus wasn't even born in December. Why are we celebrating the 25th then?

After New Years I will be distributing copies of American Zeitgeist to all my friends. You have been warned!

Thats it. Just a post to update the blog. Not happy here, not happy anywhere.

He is still out of my reach.

There's something infectious in the snow. Knowing I can look up in the sky and those same snowflakes are falling on you too. Its a vibe for sure, maybe our chakra's are meeting or somewhere on some universal level we are connected. Somehow I reach you, and you reach me back. Sometimes, it feels as if you really are so close I could reach out and stroke your face.

My injustice of a girlfriend has led up to this, and I am facing it in the face.

Train Wreck

Your love in all it's finery

Tear up the darkness all around me

Until I can breathe again

Until I believe again

Cause I'm a train wreck

Waiting to happen

Waiting for someone to come pick me up off the tracks

A wild fire born of frustration

Born of a world, oh, that gets me so high

I've no fear at all

But your eyes like midnight fireflies

Light up the trenches where my heart lies

Until I can see again

Find my way back again

Cause I'm a train wreck

Waiting to happen

Waiting for someone to come pick me up off the tracks

A wild fire born of frustration born of the one love that gets me so high

I've no fear at all

To fall so deep into you

Loose myself completely

In your sweet embrace

All my pain's erased

From your mouth, it's all that I wish

Mercy of your lips, just one kiss

Until I can breathe again

Until I can sing again

Cause I'm a train wreck

Waiting to happen

Waiting for someone to come pick me up off the tracks

A wild fire born of frustration born of the one love that gets me so high

I've no fear at all

To fall so deep into you

Loose myself completely

In your sweet embrace

All my pain's erased

Decriminalization of Marijuana

If we lived in California, posession of 28g or less is a misdemeanor. No time.
In Alaska, having 1oz or less in your home is no penalty, no crime, no time.
In Minnesota, having less than 42g is a misdemeanor, with no time, small fine.
In Iowa, it is a misdemeanor to be caught with anything, up to 6 months, and a hefty $1000 fine. Where do you want to live when you grow up?

MYTH

Marijuana Causes Crime. Marijuana users commit more property offenses than nonusers. Under the influence of marijuana, people become irrational, aggressive, and violent.

FACT
Every serious scholar and government commission examining the relationship between marijuana use and crime has reached the same conclusion: marijuana does not cause crime. The vast majority of marijuana users do not commit crimes other than the crime of possessing marijuana. Among marijuana users who do commit crimes, marijuana plays no causal role. Almost all human and animal studies show that marijuana decreases rather than increases aggression.

LETS DECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA

Its A Great Day For Ritalin!

A little ADD information, in case you thought it 'went away' as an adult, or 'it was just a childhood thing'.


The ADD adult might have trouble with staying on task, staying organized and procrastinating, just as the Attention Deficit Disorder child does. The Attention Deficit Disorder adult might have trouble maintaining relationships and controlling their mood, just like an ADD or ADHD child.

Common ADD / ADHD characteristics :

An internal sense of anxiety
Impulsive spending habits
Frequent distractions during sex
Frequently misplace the car keys, your purse or wallet or other day-to-day items
Lack of attention to detail
Family history of ADD, learning problems, mood disorders or substance abuse problems
Trouble following the proper channels or chain of commands
An attitude of "read the directions when all else fails"
Frequent traffic violations
Impulsive job changes
Trouble maintaining an organized work and/or home environment
Chronically late or always in a hurry
Frequently overwhelmed by tasks of daily living
Poor financial management and frequent late bills
Procrastination
Spending excessive time at work due to inefficiencies
Inconsistent work performance
Sense of underachievement
Frequent mood swings
Trouble sustaining friendships or intimate relationships
A need to seek high stimulation activities
Tendency toward exaggerated outbursts
Transposing numbers, letters, words
Tendency toward being argumentative
Addictive personality toward food, alcohol, drugs, work and/or gambling
Tendency to worry needlessly and endlessly
Having quick or exaggerated responses to real or imagined slights


Individuals with the disorder can get lost doing unimportant activities, heedless of more important jobs that need to be done. At times, they may have difficulty with their short term memory. They may not fulfill their obligations until the last moment or complete a task only when they feel an external pressure to do so. Symptoms are particularly burdensome to those whose work involves deadlines and/or organizing and recalling complex information.


The disorder can be frustrating to family members and co-workers, who may mistakenly see the problem as one of laziness or irresponsibility.People suffering from ADD often feel unfairly nagged by those around them and sometimes become defiant when confronted with their performance problems. Their underachievement often leads to reduced self-esteem, depression and anxiety. Some undertake psychotherapy to deal with interpersonal conflicts that are caused by the disorder or to gain control over their seeming negligence.


The disorder is associated with dysfunction the frontal part of the brain. Most adults with ADD suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder as children, although frequently the diagnosis was not made at the time. ADD has a strong hereditary component, so ADD in a child is an important indicator that one or both parents may suffer from ADD and vice versa.


Mild or non-specific deficits of executive functions, such as planning and organizing, are common in the general population, particularly among older people. Executive functions may also be affected by injury to the brain, fatigue, alcoholism, Alzheimer's, and other medical disorders. In addition, various psychological disorders, including learning disabilities, schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety, may impair executive dysfunctions.

Mental Health Milestone

She shoots, she scores! She's
gotten her ADD medicationa and it only took 3 months! What a success!

It's a frigid morning, yet something told me I needed to make this doctor appointment today. I knew that something good had to come out of a 15 minute appointment with my psych on this cold ass morning.

I was not going to fall victim to his prescribing 'whatever I have in the cabinet' any longer. The last round of Abilify put me into a tailspin of panic attacks. He actually apologized this morning for not refilling the Klonopin I so desperately needed to wean off the Abilify. Nasty nasty drug, this Abilify.

Today he asks me what I think I need Ritalin for. I said well, it improved my grades through school, gave me focus, concentration, and cut my impulsiveness markedly. I listed off another 10 reasons why I felt I needed it, and he wrote out the script. Maybe it was just time I grew a sac and insisted upon it.

Anyway, I'm back to the Ritalin, and I feel successful after three months work, averaging 5 appointments a month, time, energy, and wasted days on the wrong medication.

This is a mental health milestone for me! I'll let you know if it still works, it worked at 15, maybe it will work at 30. I'll keep ya posted!

Currently taking :

Effexor XR 150 mg - once daily
Ritalin 5mg - 1x morning, 1x lunchtime
Trazadone - 200mg - at bedtime
Lithium 200mg - 2x daily
Metoprolol 50mg - 2x daily

Some of The Faves...Quotes

"Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations."

~Jane Austen

"Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night.

I miss you like hell."

~Edna St. Vincent Millay

"I thought when love for you died, I should die.It's dead.

Alone, most strangely, I live on."

~Rupert Brooke

"Is life not a hundred times too short for us to stifle ourselves."

~Friedrich Nietzsche

"If you're being run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like a parade."

~Author Unknown

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."

~M. Kathleen Casey

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive."

~Josephine Hart

"Some women love only what they can hold in their arms;

others, only what they can't."

~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire."

~Ferdinand Foch

"He does not need opium. He has the gift of reverie."

~Anais Nin

Enneagram Test Results

Type Seven in Brief
Sevens are extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, and practical, they can also misapply their many talents, becoming over- extended, scattered, and undisciplined. They constantly seek new and exciting experiences, but can become distracted and exhausted by staying on the go. They typically have problems with impatience and impulsiveness. At their Best: they focus their talents on worthwhile goals, becoming appreciative, joyous, and satisfied.


Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain
Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs fulfilled
Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

Getting To Know You

Paraphilia refers to any powerful and persistent sexual interest other than sexual interest in copulatory or precopulatory behavior with phenotypically normal, consenting adult human partners.[1]Various methods are used to achieve the level of oxygen depletion needed, such as a hanging, suffocation with a plastic bag over the head, self-strangulation such as with a ligature, gas or volatile solvents, chest compression, or some combination of these.
Sexual Masochism: the recurrent urge or behavior of wanting to be humiliated, beaten, bound, or otherwise made to suffer for sexual pleasure.

Exhibitionism: the recurrent urge or behavior to expose one's genitals to an unsuspecting person. (Can also be the recurrent urge or behavior to perform sexual acts in a public place, or in view of unsuspecting persons.)

Psychotherapy, self-help groups, and pharmacotherapy (including the controversial hormone therapy sometimes referred to as "chemical castration") have all been used but are often unsuccessful.

Lithium, the mood-stabilizing drug also known as Eskalith is typically used for the treatment of mania in bipolar disorder. There are some reports of reduced sexual compulsive behavior and a reduction in obsessive sexual thoughts in patients, which they attribute to the drug's enhancement of serotonergic functioning.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class of antidepressants such as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), fluvoxamine (Luvox), and paroxitine (Paxil), have all been used to treat paraphilias and related disorders by reducing impulse control problems and/or sexual obsessions with some success.

In BDSM, edgeplay is a subjective term for types of sexual play that are considered to be pushing on the edge of the traditional safe, sane and consensual creed.

My Enneagram and Jung Test Results

We can thank the kind folks over at Eyerly Ball for this fine testing. I find my appointments are going so well that I may find a diagnosis and / or be able to quit therapy sometime near 2060.

Took these two tests last week and came home with copies, because if I wanted to know anything about what is going on with my mental health I need to spend an hour with google. As the visits to my psychologist go, they are in fifteen minute increments. Just long enough for me to tell him that my medication blows ass and I'd like something else. Then he returns with new pills and tells me to make a follow up visit for two weeks. Every time. Now doesn't that sound so feverishly effective?

Anyway, my scores below. And I shouldn't misguide you, I find the type seven results oddly correct.

The Enneagram is a nine factor personality system that is sort of a historical mutt, many different influences. The nine factors are - orderliness, helpfulness, image focus, hypersensitivity, detachment, caution, adventurousness, strength, and calmness.

The Jung Test are based on the work of Carl Jung, David Kiersey, Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs. They are similar in underlying theory to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Kiersey Temperment Sorter. They measure four bipolar factors, Introversion/Extroversion, Thinking/Feeling, Intuition/Sensing, and Judging/Percieving.

Enneagram Type 7 - in Brief

Sevens are extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, and practical, they can also misapply their many talents, becoming over- extended, scattered, and undisciplined. They constantly seek new and exciting experiences, but can become distracted and exhausted by staying on the go. They typically have problems with impatience and impulsiveness. At their Best: they focus their talents on worthwhile goals, becoming appreciative, joyous, and satisfied.

Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain
Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs fulfilled

Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

We have named this personality type The Enthusiast because Sevens are enthusiastic about almost everything that catches their attention. They approach life with curiosity, optimism, and a sense of adventure, like “kids in a candy store” who look at the world in wide-eyed, rapt anticipation of all the good things they are about to experience. They are bold and vivacious, pursuing what they want in life with a cheerful determination. They have a quality best described by the Yiddish word “chutzpah”—a kind of brash “nerviness.”
Although Sevens are in the Thinking Triad, this is not immediately apparent because they tend to be extremely practical and engaged in a multitude of projects at any given time. Their thinking is anticipatory: they foresee events and generate ideas “on the fly,” favoring activities that stimulate their minds—which in turn generate more things to do and think about. Sevens are not necessarily intellectual or studious by any standard definition, although they are often intelligent and can be widely read and highly verbal. Their minds move rapidly from one idea to the next, making Sevens gifted at brainstorming and synthesizing information. Sevens are exhilarated by the rush of ideas and by the pleasure of being spontaneous, preferring broad overviews and the excitement of the initial stages of the creative process to probing a single topic in depth.

Jung Short Test Results

ENFP - "Journalist". Uncanny sense of the motivations of others. Life is an exciting drama. 8.1% of total population.

Extroverted (E) 64.29%

Introverted (I) 35.71%

Intuitive (N) 75.76%

Sensing (S) 24.24%

Feeling (F) 55%

Thinking (T) 45%

Perceiving (P) 69.44%

Judging (J) 30.56%

Why, Thats the Best News I've Heard All Day!

Bush Dragged Behind Presidential Motorcade For 26 Blocks

KANSAS CITY, MO—President Bush sustained serious head injuries, massive internal bleeding, and a broken left leg Monday morning after being accidentally dragged behind the presidential motorcade for a period of 15 minutes. According to Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan,

Bush's necktie became caught in the trunk of the motorcade's second vehicle at 4:13 p.m., shortly before the driver accelerated. The president was dragged down 175th Street for 26 blocks and through four stoplights, leaving a trail of blood more than a mile long.

Upon hearing shouts emanating from behind his vehicle, the driver abruptly applied the brakes, causing the third car in the motorcade to run over the president's left leg at a speed of approximately 25 miles per hour. President Bush is resting comfortably in Bethesda Naval Hospital.

source: theonion.com

American Airlines Now Charging Fees to Non-Passengers

FORT WORTH, TX—Cash-strapped American Airlines announced a new series of fees this week that will apply to all customers not currently flying, scheduled to fly, or even thinking about flying aboard the commercial carrier.

American Airlines has promised never to raise its fees for not printing a boarding pass.

The fees, the latest introduced by American Airlines in a continuing effort to combat its financial woes, will take effect on Monday. According to company officials, these charges will include a $25 tax on citizens traveling with any other airline, as well as a mandatory $30 surcharge for passengers who decide to just stay home for the holidays instead.

"Tough times unfortunately mean tough measures," American Airlines president Gerard Arpey said. "It's never an easy decision to ask our loyal customers, as well as thousands of people chosen at random out of a telephone book, to pay a little extra, but that's just the reality of today's economic climate. We hope all Americans will understand this when receiving one of our new bills in the mail."

Arpey said that non-passengers of American Airlines should expect to pay a small fee when making Greyhound bus reservations, choosing to drive to their final destination, or simply being a citizen of the United States with a valid Social Security number.

Arpey went on to note that some additional charges would also apply, including a $15 fee for every piece of luggage customers have inside their bedroom closet, and a one-time payment of $40 for any American whose name is Greg.

"We are confident that these new measures will not discourage customers from flying with American Airlines," vice president Margaret Wilkinson said. "However, we'd like to remind our customers that there is a 'discouraged-from-flying-with-American-Airlines' charge if they do in fact choose not to fly with us."

American Airlines, which posted a $1.45 billion loss in the second quarter of 2008 alone, claimed that the new fees—including the Taking A Shower Fee, the Knowing What An Airplane Looks Like Fee, and the Eating E.L. Fudge Cookies While Watching A Rerun Of House Fee—will help the company rebound.

According to internal projections, the airline will recoup $500 million in the next three months alone, with nearly 80 percent of that revenue coming from citizens asleep at home.

"Watching television last night cost me $250," said Baltimore resident Michael Peterson, one of many Americans now forced to pay high airline costs for folding their laundry and going to the ophthalmologist. "It's ridiculous, but what can you do? I guess that's just the price of not flying these days."

"American Airlines charged me for cleaning out my attic," said 74-year-old Samantha Pratt, a New Jersey resident who has not left the state since 2005. "Sure, I didn't have to wait in any long lines, or go through invasive security searches, and I got to clean out my attic, which is something I've been wanting to do for weeks, but come on now."

In response to American's move, other airlines have begun offering more competitive rates. United this week unveiled a new $99 "spend the weekend quietly reading indoors" offer, while Southwest is introducing a $125 round-trip fare for those walking to their corner store for some groceries.

JetBlue, a commercial carrier known for its thrifty rates, has come out ahead of the pack, however, and is being lauded for its decision not to charge non-passengers not to fly.

Despite reduced offers such as these, many remain concerned over the new fees. Some have even expressed doubt about whether they'll be able to afford to see family members they currently live with during Christmas.

"It's just not worth it anymore," said Caroline Huza, an Ohio native and mother of two. "Plus, every time I stay at home, I always get trapped next to some kid who won't stop crying."

source : theonion.com

Another Day, Reductio ad Absurdum

And yet another doctors appointment. This one, checking in with the family medical doctor, yields assistance in getting touch with my psychologist, who's nurse, has been to busy to return my call for 3 days now. Since I started the Abilify, I have had endless panic attacks. Three days ago, I contacted my psychologist's office to speak to the nurse, to advise her of the happenings. I ended up leaving a message, frustrating. Second day, no call back, another voicemail. Frustrated and pissed off. Third day, voicemail and now I have spoken with my medical doctor, and she too has called and left a message. We'll see if there's power in the title. Maybe, maybe not.

I have since quit the Abilify. Under noone's orders but my own. I'm tired of suffering unnecessary panic attacks, and beyond that having nothing to stop them when I do have them. I have discontinued my Abilify, which will more than likely piss someone off, but oh how I do not care. I am at ease without it.

Monday is bloodwork for lithium and thyroid levels again. And the hunt continues.

Not Your Mama's Hallelujah

As sung by the beloved Rufus Wainwright. Keep reading, it really isn't your mama's hallelujah. There is fact in the details of Pete Wentz trying to kill himself with an overdose of Ativan, then hearing this song (sang by Jeff Buckley) and finding comfort in it and hanging on.

"Hallelujah"

I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this

The fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you

She tied you to a kitchen chair

She broke your throne, and she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Mabye I have been here before

I know this room, I've walked this floor

I used to live alone before I knew you

I've seen your flag on the marble arch

Love is not a victory march

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

There was a time

You let me know

What's real and going on below

But now you never show it to me, do you?

And remember when I moved in you?

The holy dark was moving to

And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Maybe there's a God above

And all I ever learned from love

Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you

And it's not a cry you can hear at night,

It's not somebody who's seen the light

It's cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

East Of Eden - J. Steinbeck

"I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer-and what trees and seasons smelled like-how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich."

I'm just getting into this book, but this seems so true. How many people, places, memories are associated by smell alone? Isn't this our most vivid tool in reminiscent waking life? Is there anything more powerful than smell? The power of sight alone is less potent than the magnitude of smell. I remember so many things by smell alone...

Not Proud

I have a book called Not Proud. I bought it at the Half Price Bookstore a few years back and it's been sitting on my friend Ben's coffee table ever since. The other night, I nabbed it back into my life.

From the introduction :

"One night more than four years ago, we made a box that we hoped the world would fill. We called this box Notproud.com and we hoped to fill it with sins, transgressions, and regrets. A quarter of a million words later, the box is no longer empty, and we have borne witness to the best and the worst of human behavior. The religious, the spiritual, the pragmatic, and the irreverent have all dropped by, donating moments of their lives to the testament you hold in your hands."

The book is cut into chapters; Pride, Envy, Sloth, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Anger, Misc.

Excerpt from Pride : "If I walk up to a urinal to take a leak and there's a guy at the urinal next to me, I'll make sure to pee into a hole in the bottom of the urinal so my pee sounds louder and it seems like I have a bigger cock. Thats just what I do."

Excerpt from Envy : "I envy the innocence and ignorance of babies. One time when I was seven, I watched my eight month old baby brother sleeping quietly, and I slapped him, just so he would need me."

Excerpt from Sloth : "A few years ago I tried committing suicide. There was a hook on my ceiling, and so I made a noose and put one end around my neck. The other was attached to this hook. I jumped off a chair and the hook came flying out of the ceiling. I was too lazy to try again. Sums up my life really."

Excerpt from Gluttony : "When I was a teenager I drank twelve sixteen-ounce bottles of RC Cola just to see if I could win a price in the fucking cap. I won nothing and got diarrhea."

Excerpt from Greed : "For three years I worked as a receptionist at a church's office. From the day I was hired to the day I left, I stole between four hundred and five hundred dollars from the collection plate."

Excerpt from Lust : "I cheated on my boyfriend with a friend's husband. He needed it, I needed it, and better he be with me than some stranger. No one need know. It was just one night. But the thought has crossed my mind..."His wedding ring has been inside of me.""

Excerpt from Anger : "My girlfriend cheated on me with a cop. I went to a hunting store and bought a bottle of deer urine. I poured it into the heater vent of his patrol car. I understand that the city is going to declare his car a total loss. Seems they can't get the smell out."

Misc Excerpt : "I once was cleaning out my fish tank with one of those suction hose devices and I accidentally sucked out the eyeball of one of my goldfishes. It lived and is still today swimming around with a giant hollowed out hole in the side of its head."

Peering in on the trials and tribulations of others is an intriguing, unsettling, and at times, very comforting activity. They allow us to see that where we are could have been much worse.

Good luck with the demons in your own closet.

Are you SURE you're not pregnant?

Bryan Adams continues to sing 'Do I Have To Say the Words' to me.

Today my dad told me he wanted his hair cut like Hugh Jackman. I'm amazed my father knows who Hugh Jackman is. I've got one hip dad.

So this is kind of bizarre. I got a call today from some lady with an company called Baby & Me today. She was like 'You signed up for discounts' and I was like 'Lady I don't have any offspring'. She then asked me 'You're sure?' LIKE I'M UNSURE? I hung up on her. Unbelievable. How did I get signed up for that crap?

Anxiety overload tonight, fingers missing keys like wildfire.

World AIDS Day

Welcome to World AIDS Day folks. It truly is a shame we have to take a day out for AIDS awareness. That means its spreading faster than Britney Spears' legs. If you're not fucking someone you trust, put on a condom or don't fuck them!

"Some progress is being made, but still only 1.6 million people have access to treatment—and we’re nowhere near on track to reach the 10 million we will need to put on treatment by 2010."

source: worldaidscampaign.org

10 million? My God people. For the sake of blowing your load, THINK before you fuck. You have to wonder how many of these people come from uneducated countries vs. the good old North America. See, here in the states we are aware that AIDS is rampant and condoms are free for access for anyone who wants them. And yet we are still transmitting AIDS! Leads me to believe its nothing short of ignorance in this case. Countries in South Africa I understand may be less educated, however, who does not know about AIDS? Everyone has heard about it, right? Are we just ignorant? Intolerant? Seriously. This is a plague, an epidemic. We have got to get control of it before it wholly controls us. Pretty soon the odds will show the number of lives NOT afflicted with AIDS.

I'm just asking that you talk to one person about it. Even if its just to mention that today is World AIDS Day, I'm just asking that the word comes up. Education is prevention, so talk to someone. Anyone. Reminding someone about AIDS might save one life. You don't have anything to lose.